Maybe Right, Maybe Wrong: A Guide for Young Thinkers (Maybe Guides)

Maybe right and maybe wrong is a great book for honestly explaining morality (both to adults and kids) without any appeals to arguments from authority. It gives valid reasons for why one should behave in certain ways, without appealing to any Bibles/Korans/Talmuds. And in a much more universal language, it advocates morality, listening to one's conscience, and living with principles. It leaves open the possibility that one principle might be more important than another principle, whereas religiously based morality makes inflexible (though sometimes contradictary) moral assertions, without any general principles and explanations about why something is moral (other than appealing to the authority of the bible, et. al). The religious way can and never could be reconciled with the paradoxes of real human society. For example, if killing is always against God's commandments, then why do Muslims exhort killing in Jihad's, or why do Christians and Jews believe in the eye for an eye (without any explicit permission). For real morality, you have to be consistent. Principle based morality relys on us humans to figure out what is truly moral.What a fresh and honest outlook on life this book gives. I wish my parents had read this book to me when I was little.

My daughter (age 8) read this fine book in one sitting and it provoked a productive discussion about respecting others, not respecting some behaviors, and so on.This is a short (76 pages) attractive book with appealing illustrations. Most important, it inspires children to think about themselves and the world in a mature and rational way.I highly recommend it.--Guy P. Harrison, author of "Race and Reality" and "50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God"also check out:Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion and Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief

I read it once with my son and thought there was no way he was going to ever willingly read it again, not fun pictures kind of boring. But suprisingly he has pulled out this book at least once a month since I bought it a year ago. He just turned 8 and I see no signs of him putting it down any time soon and he has asked for the Maybe Yes, Maybe No book. Not my first choice in books, but it's not for me.

My children devoured the book and it gave us a real opportunity to have an authentic conversation about right and wrong. These books tend to be a little preachy... but not this one. As an avowed skeptic and an academic who strives to instill in my children that they need to have a great deal of information before they can ascertain how they think and feel about a subject.... this book helped facilitate that conversation.

I really had high hopes for this book. I am just beginning to introduce formal reasoning to my homeschooled kids, and this sounded promising. I loved the first half, or so. But, after that point, it became very moralizing and lost its value for me. I've decided to use my disappointment to write my own version for my kids. So, I appreciate the concept of this book, but for me, the content fell short.

I really liked how the book differentiated between acting based on rules and acting based on principles. Read this w/ my 6.5 yr old and she seemed to understand quite well. I would recommend this book for families raising secular/freethinking children.

This book serves as another tool in the toolbox for parents challenged with raising their children in a world heavily influenced by religion. It provides a thought process for talking to children and a methodology for developing similar subjects in teaching children to think for themselves and make decisions based on evidence and reason rather than accepting the dogma of tradition and authority. "Maybe Yes, Maybe No" is a similar book that demonstrates a similar line of thought.

After reading Dan's book Godless, which I enjoyed and highly recommend for adults, I was thrilled when I found out he also wrote children books. I purchased this for my daughter and she loved it. I also plan to purchase his other children books.